Demosthenes, On the Crown, Charles Anthony Vince (Translator), James Herbert Vince (Translator), 169

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[169] Evening had already fallen when a messenger arrived bringing to the presiding councillors¹ the news that Elatea had been taken. They were sitting at supper, but they instantly rose from table, cleared the booths in the marketplace of their occupants, and unfolded the hurdles,² while others summoned the commanders and ordered the attendance of the trumpeter. The commotion spread through the whole city. At daybreak on the morrow the presidents summoned the Council to the Council House, and the citizens flocked to the place of assembly. Before the Council could introduce the business and prepare the agenda, the whole body of citizens had taken their places on the hill.

On the Crown. Demosthenes. Charles Anthony Vince (Translator), James Herbert Vince (Translator). London. 1926.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

On the Crown (English) (Demosthenes, Vol. II: De Corona, De Falsa Legatione, XVIII, XIX. Vince, C. A. and Vince, J. H., translators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1926 (1939 reprint).)

Editions (1)

ὑπὲρ Κτησιφῶντος περὶ τοῦ στεφάνου Perseus (Demosthenes. Orationes, Vol. I. Butcher, S. H., editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903.) — 169 focus

[169] ἑσπέρα μὲν γὰρ ἦν, ἧκε δʼ ἀγγέλλων τις ὡς τοὺς πρυτάνεις ὡς Ἐλάτεια κατείληπται. καὶ μετὰ ταῦθʼ οἱ μὲν εὐθὺς ἐξαναστάντες μεταξὺ δειπνοῦντες τούς τʼ ἐκ τῶν σκηνῶν τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐξεῖργον καὶ τὰ γέρρʼ ἐνεπίμπρασαν, οἱ δὲ τοὺς στρατηγοὺς μετεπέμποντο καὶ τὸν σαλπικτὴν ἐκάλουν· καὶ θορύβου πλήρης ἦν ἡ πόλις. τῇ δʼ ὑστεραίᾳ, ἅμα τῇ ἡμέρᾳ, οἱ μὲν πρυτάνεις τὴν βουλὴν ἐκάλουν εἰς τὸ βουλευτήριον, ὑμεῖς δʼ εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ἐπορεύεσθε, καὶ πρὶν ἐκείνην χρηματίσαι καὶ προβουλεῦσαι πᾶς ὁ δῆμος ἄνω καθῆτο.

Notes on the current edition

On the Crown

1. presiding councillors: the fifty representatives on the Council of that one of the ten tribes within whose term of administrative duty the meeting fell.

2. unfolded the hurdles: they were tied together hinge-wise, and, when unfolded, formed barriers, either to keep out strangers ( Dem. 59.90 ) or to block streets leading from the marketplace elsewhere than to the Pnyx, where the assembly met (Schol. on Aristoph. Ach. 22 ). Unfolded is a conjectural reading derived from the scholium cited; but no satisfactory explanation is forthcoming of the reading of all MSS., set fire to the hurdles.

Demosthenes On the Crown 169

Charles Anthony Vince (Translator), James Herbert Vince (Translator)

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